


really bad day

by bluecalicocat



Series: young, dumb and in love [4]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 3racha best friends, Alternate Universe - College/University, Best Boyfriend, Crying, Established Relationship, Fluff, Han Jisung | Han-centric, Hurt/Comfort, Lee Minho | Lee Know is a Sweetheart, Light Angst, Living Together, M/M, Self-Doubt, art major jisung, hyunjin is mentioned but doesn't actually appear, jisung has a horrible day, minho lowkey being a therapist in this, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22923826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecalicocat/pseuds/bluecalicocat
Summary: “Jisungie?” he asks again, and Jisung can tell the exact moment Minho catches sight of him, because the footsteps suddenly stop and he goes quiet for about half a second. Then, he lets out a soft breath. “Aww… Are you tired, injured or dying?”“Something in between”, Jisung mumbles, still not opening his eyes.-jisung has a really bad day, but at least he has a boyfriend to take care of him
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Series: young, dumb and in love [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565239
Comments: 15
Kudos: 348





	really bad day

A bad day isn’t made by a single bad thing that happens, even though the first one definitely sets the mood for the rest of the day. In Jisung’s case, that event includes waking up at 5 am because of a truck that’s backing up right outside his window.

 _Beep, beep, beep, beep_ … Jisung grabs a pillow and pushes it against his own ears with a loud groan, but as expected, it does nothing to keep the noise out. He’s wide awake now, anyway, and doesn’t think he’ll be able to go back to bed. Might as well make use of the unexpectedly early morning.

It’s ironic that this happens when his insomnia has, for once, decided to go easy on him and let him sleep decently every night for the past weeks even on the days when Minho hasn’t been next to him. Great. Thanks, universe.

He throws the pillow across the room and sits up, looking around groggily. His 5am brain hasn’t reached a functional level yet, and neither have his motor skills it seems, as he practically falls out of the bed, legs still tangled up in the covers. The noise it makes when he hits the floor is surprisingly weak considering the pain that shoots up from his knee.

Jisung hisses and reaches toward the origin of the pain (and _now_ the covers decide to fall off him), holding onto his hurt knee and closing his eyes. He lets out a slow breath and counts to five, letting the intensity of the pain fade a little and giving himself time to catch up. Honestly, Jisung feels like he’s still in bed. This morning is starting way too abruptly for his liking.

Deciding that the pain in his knee has receded as much as it’s going to, at least for the moment, he puts his feet firmly against the ground before pushing himself to a standing position. He gives himself a few moments to adjust, and then turns toward his desk.

His computer is charging, but the green light on the charger tells him that the battery is full. _At least one thing that went right this morning_ , Jisung thinks with a small huff as he takes the few steps to get to the desk.

Plopping down on the chair in front of it, he opens the computer and logs in, immediately going to the digital art project he (nearly) finished last night, the one that’s supposed to be handed in today. He taps his fingers against the desk while it loads, before focusing his eyes on the screen once his project appears.

Except, it doesn’t. The page that was filled with art just as of yesterday is completely empty, a blank canvas that used to be a beautiful painting. Someone, somehow, has managed to rip all the color away.

“No, no, no”, Jisung mumbles, frantically trying to find any trace of all the lines and shapes and colors he knows are supposed to be in there. He presses a few things, tries to look through other projects, but can’t find the one from last night.

If he had the energy to cry, he probably would, but he really does not have the energy.

What he does have are two problems. The first one being the missing project, because Jisung was actually really proud of what he did in that painting, both with the composition and emotion behind it. 

His second problem is also the missing project, but more specifically, his art class. The teacher is expecting them all to have something to hand in later today, and right now, Jisung has nothing. Nada. Null.

His teacher is already on his case after their last assignment, since his project had apparently been “too out of the box”, according to the older man. Now, there’s nothing. He’s pretty sure his teacher would prefer a project that goes outside of the assignment description over having nothing.

It sucks, but Jisung doesn’t see too many option here. He stands up to get his phone from the bedside table and texts Chan and Changbin, asking if they have any backups of this project since it’s digital, and hoping that he doesn’t sound too desperate, before settling down in front of the computer again. Unless he in some miraculous way gets his project back (which he seriously doubts), he has to try and replace it.

A mess of colors is better than a blank page, right? Jisung puts his headphones on to focus and hopes his teacher agrees.

-

Minho is yawning and rubbing at his eyes as he comes to a stop in front of the door to Jisung’s bedroom, mind still muddled with sleep. He raises a hand to knock three times quickly. It’s past eight in the morning, but he doesn’t expect a response, and is surprised to hear a low “come in” from the other side of the door.

Usually, Jisung sleeps until his body reaches a high enough level of panic and forces him to wake up unless he wants to be late.

Yawning again, Minho pushes the door open, relieved to see that the room is still rather dark. The blinds on Jisung’s windows are open, but the sun doesn’t rise on this side of the building, so they’re fine.

If Jisung being awake already was surprising, then Jisung being awake and working over by his desk is straight-up a shock to Minho. The veterinary students would definitely have gasped if he himself had been up for more than five minutes. As it is now, he doesn’t, simply strolls into the room and over to Jisung, stopping behind the boy’s chair and gently putting his arms around the younger. Jisung barely reacts, only gives a small hum as Minho continues to back-hug him while trying to figure out what could be so important that Jisung had to leave his bed earlier than normal.

It takes his eyes a moment to adjust to the bright screen, but once they do, Minho frowns.

“You’re working?” he asks, though it’s completely unnecessary since it’s quite obvious what Jisung is doing.

The boy nods half-heartedly, barely paying attention to what the other is saying.

At the back of Minho’s mind, a bit of worry stirs at the fact that Jisung is up so early to work. Past experience has taught him that Jisung working this early is rarely a good thing. He should probably intervene.

“How much did you sleep last night?”

Jisung shrugs, and Minho wants to hug him tighter at this, but instead he releases his grasp and reaches out to carefully take the headphones off of the boy’s head. He does it slowly, giving Jisung time to register what’s happening and an opportunity to protest, if he really doesn’t want to talk right now, but that doesn't come.

Once the headphones are off, Minho spins the chair around so that they’re turned to each other and he can give his boyfriend one of his most unimpressed looks. Jisung squirms in his seat as Minho speaks once more.

“I’ll ask again, and you can decide how honest you wanna be. How much sleep did you get last night?” Minho asks, trying to keep his voice soft enough that he doesn’t sound accusing. That’s the last thing he wants.

“I slept enough.” There’s a brief pause during which Minho keeps his gaze locked with Jisung’s, who gives a tiny sigh. “Seriously Min, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

-

Jisung is not, in fact, fine. However, only an incredibly small part of that has to do with his interrupted sleep this morning. His day starts on a bad note and it gets progressively worse as the day goes on. Or, nothing worse happens, but all the bad things start to pile up and add more stress onto Jisung, who’s already in an anxious mood.

He has breakfast at Minho’s insistence before leaving their apartment. Things seem like they are going to be fine after that. He doesn’t forget any of his books, the weather’s nice, his phone is charged… Of course, it doesn’t last.

He has gotten all the way inside the school building and is heading up the staircase when someone bumps into his shoulder rather harshly. Jisung, who’s completely unprepared, can only flail helplessly before stumbling and falling. At least he doesn’t land too hard.

He lands on his knees though, and another spike of pain shoots up through it. In the background, he hears someone say a rushed and frantic _“Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry!”_ , but whoever it is doesn’t stop to check on the boy he just pushed to the ground.

Jisung grits his teeth and grabs the bag he dropped when he fell, before standing up on unsteady legs. His first lecture hasn’t even started yet, and he’s already prepared to run back home. However, he’s way too stubborn to actually do that.

Jisung enters his first lecture with heavy steps, only to realize that Hyunjin, who’s pretty much the only good thing about this specific lecture, isn’t here. He makes his way to the back and tries not to let it show just how much he wants to cry right now.

-

After making it through the morning, Jisung spends all his lunch working on the new project so that he’ll have something to show his teacher once art class rolls around later this afternoon. His knee still hurts, and one of his professors had scolded him (a bit too harshly, in his own opinion) for drawing in the margins of a test they were given back today. On top of it all, he now has to skip lunch in favor of putting together something that’s at least somewhat presentable.

Chan and Changbin find him just as Jisung starts packing up his things to go to his next class. They both look surprised to find him here, but quickly school their expressions once they notice the slight frown on Jisung’s face.

“Hey Sung, you okay?” Chan asks once they’re close enough. Jisung nods without meeting his eyes.

“Saw your message this morning”, Changbin comments, a hint of something close to concern in his voice. Jisung doesn’t even have to turn his head to know that they’re both watching him. “Why were you up at five fucking am?”

Jisung makes a grimace.

“Truck outside woke me up”, he says. “Then I couldn’t sleep so I decided to see if there was anything more to be done to my digital art project.”

“Then why’d you need the backup?” Chan asks, confused. Jisung has to hold himself back from sighing loudly at the mere mention of it.

Once again, he doesn’t meet their eyes as he responds.

“My project was gone.”

Maybe it’s because Chan and Changbin both have a lot of experience with the creative process and how bad it would be for a whole project to just be missing, but they seem mildly horrified at the idea. They know how much goes into a project like this.

“Did you manage to get it back? When do you have to hand it in?”

One could think it was Chan’s project that had disappeared, considering the way he asks the questions. Jisung’s way past panicking at this point, having reached some weird state of apathy about the whole thing.

He grimaces again.

“No, and I have to give it to my teacher in…” Jisung glances at the time on his phone. “One minute! Gotta blast!”

The two others are left to stare after him as he takes off, racing toward his next class.

-

When Jisung gets home that day, he can barely make it up the stairs to the apartment, even though it’s only on the third floor. Obviously the elevator is out of order, so that’s not an option. After this day, he doesn’t expect anything to be in order. Given how horrible everything else has been today, he wouldn’t be surprised if his keys have somehow fallen out of his pocket. That would just be the cherry on top, wouldn't it?

Jisung makes his way through the corridor and to their front door, letting out a sigh of relief when he finds it unlocked. He probably puts a little too much weight on the handle, but his knee hurts like hell right now and he thinks he’ll collapse any second, so the door will have to forgive him.

Just as Jisung sinks down to the floor right inside the front door, he hears Minho shout from somewhere further inside the apartment.

“Ji? Is that you?”

He doesn’t have the energy to answer, simply lets out a groan that he’s pretty sure Minho isn’t able to hear before giving up on staying upright.

After pushing the door closed from his sitting position, he lets himself drop to the floor completely, laying down on the hard wood without a second thought. His eyes are closed, and he’s fully focused on his breathing, but he still picks up on Minho’s footsteps as they come closer.

“Jisungie?” he asks again, and Jisung can tell the exact moment Minho catches sight of him, because the footsteps suddenly stop and he goes quiet for about half a second. Then, he lets out a soft breath. “Aww, no… Are you tired, injured or dying?”

“Something in between”, Jisung mumbles, still not opening his eyes, though it sounds more like _Sumthg bthin_.

Minho, who has a lot of experience with decoding slurred boyfriend-speech, walks up to him and crouches down. Then, there’s a hand gently moving hair away from Jisung’s face, and the softness is so overwhelming to him that Jisung can’t help but finally start to cry. Not loudly or dramatically, just silent tears going down the side of his face and dropping to the floor since he’s still laying on his back. Minho ceases his movements for a few moments, a bit taken aback by the tears, but he recovers quickly.

“Ji, are you okay?” he asks gently, moving his hand down to rest on Jisung’s shoulder. He opens his eyes to look up at his boyfriend.

“I’m okay-” his voice cracks, and he sighs, lifting a hand to tub at his eyes. The fact that he’s still trying to convince himself that he’s okay even when there are tears falling from his eyes breaks Minho’s heart a little. He’s home, he’s safe. No matter how bad of a day it has been, it's going to be okay, even if it’s not okay right now.

“Shh, baby, you don’t have to be okay.” He pulls on Jisung’s shirt a little, and the other takes the hint, lifting himself from the floor slightly so that Minho can insert himself underneath him. Once he’s still, Jisung lets his head drop back down into the older’s lap and Minho starts carding his fingers through his hair. “You’ll be okay, I’m right here…”

They stay like that for a while. It’s kind of uncomfortable, and probably not the most ergonomic position to be in, but that doesn’t really matter to either of them.

When Jisung’s crying has reduced to only the occasional sniffle, Minho speaks again.

“Do you wanna move to the couch? And talk, maybe?” he asks. Jisung gives a small nod in response.

The floor isn’t really the most comfortable place to be, so they’re both relieved to be sitting down on the couch, even though Minho’s muscles are sore from dance practice and Jisung generally feels like a mess right now. He’s still crying, but it’s quiet and calm.

“Today is shit”, Jisung mumbles after some time, and Minho chuckles a bit at how cute he sounds even as he’s complaining. The younger lets out a soft sigh and leans his head on Minho’s shoulder.

“Bad day?” he asks even though it’s obvious.

“Really bad day”, Jisung says. He’s silent for a few seconds before continuing, this time sounding almost detached from the words he’s speaking. “I think I failed an art assignment today. That’s what I was working on this morning, because my entire project had somehow been deleted from my computer and I had to start over, but the new drawing was not good at all. Like, I’m an art major and I can’t even do art...”

Minho frowns at this.

“Baby, don’t say that.” Jisung’s too deep in his self-deprecation to notice the pet name. “You _are_ good at art, so good. This school wouldn’t have accepted you if you weren't, and that cafe wouldn’t be paying for your paintings if they weren’t good.”

Jisung doesn’t seem convinced.

“Logically, I know that, but my brain can’t think like that right now.” He lifts his head from Minho’s shoulder without looking at the older. “I know this is a bad day and that I wouldn’t think like this if I was just feeling better, but, I dunno, it’s hard to explain… I feel like art is the only thing I’m good at, and now I don’t even have that because I’m gonna fail.”

Minho has an idea. He’s not sure if it will work, but it’s definitely worth a try.

“Do you happen to have a whiteboard pen?”

Jisung gives him a confused look.

“Just because I’m an art major doesn’t mean I have every type of pen imaginable”, he comments, but still gets up from his seat, probably to go get one.

“I wasn’t asking because you’re an art major, I’m asking because I’ve seen plenty of whiteboard pens in your bag before”, Minho says, even though Jisung has already left the room.

He returns shortly after, stopping in front of the couch to stare at his boyfriend, awaiting further instructions.

Since Jisung has a tendency to spread his stuff all throughout their dorm, there just so happens to be a stash of blank papers laying messily on their coffee table. Minho has already noticed this, and that’s why he didn’t ask his boyfriend to bring one when he went to get the pen.

Instead, he leans forward and reaches for one of the papers before handing it to Jisung, who takes it and sits down on the floor in front of the low table.

“Draw a circle. A big one, because you’re gonna be filling it with things”, Minho says.

At the suggestive look Jisung gives him, Minho huffs.

“Euw. Get your mind out of the gutter, young sir.”

“ _‘Sir’_ ”, Jisung repeats. “That’s kinky. I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing.”

Minho is very close to taking off his left sock and throwing it at Jisung, but because he’s such a good boyfriend, he refrains.

Anyway. Jisung does oblige, taking the pen and making a surprisingly even circle. He then turns his eyes back to Minho, who’s staring at the circle as if he’s trying to figure out how the fuck it managed to be so even.

“That circle is way too perfect. Are you sure you’re human?”

Jisung makes a grimace.

“No, it’s not. Look, this part right here looks like it was drawn by a three year old.”

He gestures to a part of the circle that’s probably smaller than his own finger nail, the tiniest imperfection when you look at the bigger picture, and Minho probably should have expected a response like this, but it’s still a bit sad.

“Okay, whatever. Now you’re gonna make sections, and in each section, you write or draw something about yourself that gives you value. Like, a trait or a talent or an ability or a behaviour. Got it?”

Jisung stares down at the paper with a frown. Then, he turns his eyes to Minho again.

“So, basically, you’re asking me to compliment myself but in a circle diagram?” And yeah, simply put, that’s it. Minho nods. “Doesn’t that sound egoistic?”

“It’s literally not. And besides, I’m the one asking you to do it, so please. For me?” Minho asks, because he doesn’t have the energy to argue about the difference between being egotistical and simply acknowledging your self-worth.

Jisung grins, ignoring the fact that Minho is trying to be sappy here.

“For you.” He sounds almost like he’s singing it, and if Minho hadn’t known about 3racha and their music, he would have been very confused about the giggle that follows Jisung’s word. As it is now, he simply rolls his eyes at the younger and watches as he turns back to the paper in front of him.

“But what do I…” he trails off. Minho thinks he knows what the issue is.

“Art”, the older says simply. “You said yourself that you’re good at it, so put that down.”

Jisung still looks like he wants to argue about the whole egoistic-aspect, but to Minho’s luck, he doesn’t. Instead he starts making a section in the circle and puts the word ART in the middle of it, before surrounding the word with small doodles of flowers. When those are done, he faces Minho again, and the older tries not to laugh at the expectant look on his face.

“I told you to put the things you think are good about yourself. If you really can’t come up with anything, I have plenty, but you better have more than one.”

Jisung bites his lip in thought, and the expression is so adorable that Minho nearly loses focus on what they’re doing.

“Okay…”

He puts the pen on the paper again, and Minho watches as he makes another section. This time, he starts with the drawing. It’s obvious what he’s about to write even before he adds the word MUSIC, since he draws small music notes and some sort of wavy piano sketch that looks really cool.

He glances up at Minho again, as if asking for confirmation, and though Minho wants him to do this by himself, he nods with a small smile.

The next section remains empty of words, even after Jisung has filled it up with small doodles. When it seems like the younger won’t be adding any more to it, Minho leans forward slightly to see the doodles better, trying to figure out what positive thing about Jisung they represent.

“Loving?” Minho guesses. There are two stick figures, and one of them is smiling and holding out a heart to the other, whose expression isn’t as bright.

“I don’t know what word I’m looking for here, that’s why I didn’t put anything”, Jisung explains with a small smile. “But I was thinking about things like showing affection to my friends, appreciating the people I love. I guess loving is a good word for that.”

“You should add that you’re good at making people laugh”, Minho says when it seems like Jisung isn’t sure what to put next.

At that, the boy grins and starts drawing. Minho leans forward to look at it, and sees that Jisung just made a clown.

“Look hyung, it’s you!” Jisung says with a gesture to the drawing, and Minho tries his hardest not to crack a smile.

“Hilarious”, he deadpans.

There’s enough space in the circle to add two more things. Minho is expecting the boy not to know what to draw next, but instead he gets to watch as Jisung draws a last line through the circle, and then goes to work on the second to last section.

He draws another stick figure, and this one is sitting in a boat. The waves in the water he draws are artsy, with added loops for decoration. Beneath the lines of the water, Jisung writes two words. DEEP THINKER.

And yeah, Minho agrees with that, too. All you have to do is take a look at his lyrics and you’ll see just how smart he is, even if it’s different from the kind of smart that does well academically. He’s just very intelligent when it comes to thinking in general.

It’s hard to explain, but Minho definitely agrees.

He’s about to ask Jisung what he’ll put in the last empty space, but stops himself as he catches sight of Dori walking toward Jisung from behind. The kitten isn’t the biggest fan of people, but she’ll occasionally approach either Jisung or Minho, and it seems like right now is going to be one of those occasions.

Jisung doesn’t notice her until she walks around him and jumps into his lap, and a soft smile immediately overtakes his face at this.

“Hi, Dori”, he coos at her. Minho brings his phone out as discreetly as possible to get a picture of them, because they’re being really cute and domestic right now. His heart cannot handle it.

With Dori still in his lap, Jisung lifts his pen again and draws something that Minho can’t make out from where he’s sitting. When the boy is done, he puts the pen down and gives his full attention to the animal on his lap, so Minho takes the opportunity to look at the last drawing.

It’s a cat and a heart.

“Is your love for Dori one of your personality traits?” Minho asks, though he thinks he’s being kind of hypocritical since his own love for cats makes up a great part of his own identity, in his personal opinion.

Jisung ignores his slightly joking tone and answers.

“Yes. Now go fill her bowl, our child must be hungry, since we haven’t given her any food yet.”

Minho raises his eyebrows.

“Why don’t you do it yourself?” he asks just for the sake of being difficult.

Jisung gives a pointed stare to the ball of fur on his lap, though Minho is already on his way out of his seat to go do exactly what Jisung said he should do. After all, he can’t let their child starve.

-

It’s several hours later, and the couple is cuddling on the couch after having dinner (takeout, because they really can’t be bothered to cook right now). Even with the effects of this bad day still lingering at the back of his mind, Jisung can honestly say that he feels a lot better now compared to when he first got home.

Minho is almost asleep behind him when Jisung speaks up.

“Thank you”, he says softly. The older peeks his eyes open and replies, without having to ask what exactly Jisung is thanking him for.

“It’s no problem. I’m sorry you had a bad day.”

“‘s okay. It’s not like it was your fault”, his voice is low and slightly slurred, both him and Minho being pretty close to falling asleep. Maybe sleeping on the couch isn’t the best idea, but neither of them care right now.

One bad thing doesn’t make a bad day, but one good person can make it a lot better.

Jisung closes his eyes with a small smile.

\- (bonus) -

Chan looks at the name next to the door to make sure that this is the right office before raising his hand to knock. Almost immediately, there’s a voice from the other side telling him to come in, and so Chan opens the door.

The professor is just rising from the seat by his desk and looks up at Chan as the door opens. He doesn’t seem to recognize him, which makes sense considering the fact that he’s an art teacher and the boy is a music major.

“Hi, Mr. Kim, sorry to bother you”, the blond starts, but the professor smiles at him and waves away any apologies. “Uh, I’m a friend of Han Jisung…”

He trails off as the professor’s eyes seem to light up.

“Ah, yes, he’s one of my students. And… sorry, I’ll hear you out in a minute, but if you happen to run into him, feel free to tell him that I loved his latest project and definitely want it featured at the school’s art exhibit at the end of the year.”

Chan stops, the words catching him a bit off guard.

“Uh, sure, I can tell him that.” He pauses as he tries to find the words. “But that was actually his second version of this project. The first one accidentally got deleted this morning.”

The professor raises his eyebrows at this. If the project Jisung handed in today is as great as he’s saying, it makes sense for him to be surprised, since that would mean he made it in only a few hours.

“This morning?” he repeats, to which Chan nods.

“Yeah… That’s why I’m here. I found that we actually had a backup of it on another computer. Here, I have it on this USB.”

Chan holds it out for the professor, who takes it, still looking very surprised by the whole ordeal.

“I’m not an art major, and I never saw the second version of his project, but I think this one is pretty great, too. Have a good day.”

The man barely has time to thank him before Chan is leaving the office, grinning to himself as he brings his phone out to text Jisung.

 **chan** : hey sung i talked to your prof and your digital art project definitely did not get an f  
**chan** : your professor actually loved it  
**chan** : you did well, good job!

**Author's Note:**

> might come back and edit this tomorrow when my brain is actually functioning but enjoy for now <3


End file.
